Folktales,
Legends, and Stories

The Nanny Goat
and the Hedgehog

Koza
odratá a jež

There
was a nanny goat with horns,

Her coat of fur half scratched and torn,

She ran off, up into the hills,

And hid among the rocks and rills

This particular nanny goat
had squeezed herself into a fox’s den. When the fox came home and wanted to
enter her hole, she discovered that she couldn’t. Some kind of strange creature
was in her den. She tried to chase it out, but the creature stamped its hooves
and called out:

I’m a nanny goat with horns,
My coat of fur half scratched and torn,

With my hooves, I’ll stamp and stew,

With my horns, I’ll pierce you through.

The fox was frightened and ran away, wailing
throughout the whole forest. Then she met a wolf. “Why are you crying, little
cousin fox?” “Oh, brother wolf, how can I help but cry? There’s some kind of
horrible animal lying in my den.” “Don’t worry. I’ll chase it out!”

Together they returned to the scene of the
trouble, and the wolf called out:

Tell me who you are then,

Hiding in the fox’s den?

The nanny goat stamped her hooves and called
out

I’m a nanny goat with horns,
My coat of fur half scratched and torn,

With my hooves, I’ll stamp and stew,

With my horns, I’ll pierce you through.

The wolf was also frightened. Both he and the
fox ran off, bawling and lamenting, until they met a bear. “Why are you crying,
little fox?”

“How can I help but cry, dear bear? A savage
creature has hidden itself in my den, which is now the scene of unspeakable
horror.”

“I’ll chase it out!” offered the bear. “But
surely you won’t succeed. I tried to flush the monster out, and the wolf tried
to do likewise, but or efforts came to nothing.” “Don’t worry your furry head.
I’m stronger,” boasted the bear. When he arrived at the den, the bear shouted:

Tell me who you are then,

Hiding in the fox’s den?

But the nanny goat merely stamped her hooves
and before and shouted back:

I’m a nanny goat with horns,
My coat of fur half scratched and torn,

With my hooves, I’ll stamp and stew,

With my horns, I’ll pierce you through.

Even the bear was frightened. All three of them
ran off into the forest, sniveling and complaining. Then
they met a hedgehog. “Who has hurt you,
little fox that you are crying so hard?” “How can I help but cry, when there’s
some kind of strange creature hidden in my den! And there’s no chasing it out!”
“I’ll try,” said the hedgehog. The fox merely waved her paw sadly. “How can you
possible chase the monster out, little hedgie-wedgie, if the three of us
couldn’t do it?” “We are the rulers of the forest, and we couldn’t do anything,”
added the wolf. “Well, even though you’re the rulers and I’m just a little
hedgie-wedgie, I’ll do better than you!” and the hedgehog curled himself up into
a ball and rolled off so fast that the fox, the wolf, and the bear could
scarcely keep up with him.

The hedgehog went up to the opening and called
out:

Tell me who you are then,

Hiding in the fox’s den?

The nanny goat again stamped fiercely with her
hooves and shouted:

I’m a nanny goat with horns,
My coat of fur half scratched and torn,

With my hooves, I’ll stamp and stew,

With my horns, I’ll pierce you through.

But the hedgehog was not frightened.

I’m a hedgehog, small it’s true,

But with my quills, I’ll pierce you too!

Then he wound himself into a ball and rolled
into the hole. He started pricking the goat right where her coat was most
scratched and torn. The goat bleated in pain, thrashed back and forth, tried to
get the hedgehog with her horns, and kicked wildly with her hooves. But she
couldn’t do anything against the hedgehog’s sharp quills. So she jumped out of
the den.

The fox, the wolf, and the bear were all
waiting to give her a proper beating. She ran helter-skelter out of the forest,
and never stopped at all. From then on she lost her taste for hiding in fox’s
dens.

This story was taken
from Slovak Tales for Young and Old by Pavol Dobsinsky in English and Slovak,
translated by Lucy Bednar. Published by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
Wauconda, Illinois, in 2001.